Spanking In Film – “Postriziny”

A few months ago I blathered about this movie, the 1981 Czech production that stars a girl who could be my girlfriend’s twin. She isn’t of course, my girlfriend’s twin, because my girlfriend is English and not Czech. I’m not sure if that’s why she spoils me, the fact that she’s English, but she does spoil me.

Tonight I watched this film on my computer. My girlfriend found it and downloaded it and gave it to me for Christmas, along with a bottle of Glenfarclas whisky (I can’t find it in the States anymore, but Michael Swayne in the ‘Maid’ books always has a supply) and a box of Green & Black organic chocolates. So I watched the movie and sipped scotch and ate chocolate, and cried and laughed.

This isn’t a crying movie. It’s a funny movie. I forgot how funny it is, not seeing it for 30 years, but I saw it before I met its star’s not-twin and fell in love with her. Okay, its star’s not-twin would have been about eight years old when the movie came out but that’s neither here nor there.

When Magda, the star, glances a certain way, smiles a certain way, or speaks a certain way – regardless of language – I see and hear someone else, someone I love to distraction, someone from whose company I parted recently in a chilly northern England airport, and whose face I see in Magda’s. And I weep without shame because I miss her.

But stiff upper lip, KBO, and all that.

Magda’s character lives in a village in Czechoslovakia where her husband is the new manager of the brewery. Every man in town loves and perhaps is in love with Magda, especially the village physician. After Magda and her loud-mouthed brother-in-law climb to the top of the brewery chimney and cause the volunteer fire brigade to be called out, the doctor tells her she deserves a spanking.

Magda asks, “On my bare bottom?” and the doctor says, “On your bare bottom.” Thus the stage is set for the climactic spanking, but that is still quite a ways off.

Her husband is strong and able, but a bit of an esthete. He has dry bread and lukewarm coffee for breakfast, while Magda feasts on steak and beer. She throws herself into life with abandon, while his greatest delight is when she hurts her leg dancing with his brother, and she must stay in bed where her husband can care for her – and she can’t get into any trouble.

Apart from causing havoc and furor amongst the drooling male populace every time she goes outdoors (it just occurred to me that there are no other female speaking roles in the movie, and I can’t say for sure there are any others in sight at all) she also attempts to help the doctor with his head cold by shooting a therapeutic essential oil up his nose, but without diluting it 10 to 1 like the instructions say. The doctor’s ensuing mad dash around the village would make Mack Sennett proud. Still the doctor forgives her.

But finally Magda does the unthinkable – she cuts her long blonde hair, the pride of the village, short. She does it because everything else is being cut short thanks to her husband’s innovations at the brewery – the new truck that delivers beer more quickly than their horse-drawn wagons, the new radio that brings the village closer to Prague and even Paris, the shortening of the brewery’s work week, though with shorter pay as well. The doctor even shortens his mustache to impress Magda.

The English title of the movie is “Cutting It Short,” and in addition to cutting her hair, Magda has replaced her ankle length skirt with one much nearer the knee, and her knee length bloomers with white, lacy, short knickers that hug her cute bottom. But the spanking her husband gives Magda isn’t short at all, and the 17-stroke hiding with the heavy rubber tube from her bicycle pump is shown from several angles, along with shots of its stunning effect on the men of the village.

Magda endures the hard spanks while uttering delightful Ow!s and then reaches back to lower her knickers. We don’t see her bare bottom, unfortunately, but the move is one of the most evocative and provocative I ever saw in film, and I love that moment.

The unstated message is a bit ambiguous though. I’m not sure if she is saying, “Here, honey, if you’re going to spank me do it right and on my bare bottom,” or if she’s showing him the effect the bit of rubber is having on her sit-upon. In any case once she lowers her undies he leaves off.

Unruffled and seated on the handlebars now, Magda tells the onlookers that she bought the tyre pump at a local store. Then the couple ride off, and Magda tells her husband she is expecting,

Borrowed from Fesseur Blogspot

http://devlinoneill.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/the-portrait-or-who-was-that-picture-of-loveliness-i-saw-you-with-last-night/

Above is the link to my previous ramble on this subject, but I want to make a final comment about the spanking I discuss here.

Like all classic movies this one is all of a piece. You may have seen the spanking scene clip somewhere and enjoyed it, but without the full context of the film it loses much of its effect, like watching just the scene where Paul Henreid directs Rick’s café band in The Marseillaise with no preamble. It would mean considerably less than it does taken together with its background.

So I strongly recommend that film-spanking fans make the effort at some point to view this one in its entirety. You’ll thank me.

And I thank my benefactor for allowing me to relive a thrill I had thought long lost.

That is all.

Devlin out.